Thicker Than Most
by izzysheppard
Summary: (written for simplemusings12) When Carson's sister is killed in a car crash, he is left to take care of his fifteen-year-old goddaughter and niece, Lilly, who has nobody else left in the world. But what Lilly comes to learn is that her newfound family on Atlantis goes thicker than most.
1. Chapter 1

** Hi! So, I've never written a SGA fanfiction before...so go easy, please. This story is most definitely Carson-centered story, with my own OC, Lily. (NOT a Mary-Sue OC, I promise. I hope.)**

**Before I publish, this is my disclaimer. I do not own Stargate Atlantis, and never have. I would have kept the show running, and Carson would never have blown up. SORRY. All rights go to the SyFy network and Martin Gero.**

**Thanks. Sorry for taking forever.**

**If you like my writing, review, and check out my other story, The Heart Shaped Sea Glass Necklace. (Downton Abbey.)**

**PS! i don't own the OC Isabella Sheppard. (You'll see her later.) She belongs, in her entirety, to simplemusings12 and the story Life on Atlantis. (WHICH you should check out. Pretty cool stuff.) Follow Izzy's twitter: izzysheppard. Oh, and follow mine: IzabellSheppard, or Lilly's LillyBeckett**

**Anyway, onto the story, Thicker Than Most.**

Lily Alexis Beckett was born April 19, 1990 to Anna Beckett. She never met her father. That had never really mattered - she had her uncle Carson.

Anna Beckett went to a party the summer before her final year at university. She got very, very drunk, and apparently slept with some guy she'd taken a class or two with. (Who also happened to be drunk.) 6 weeks later, she found out she was pregnant.

Carson, then 19, was the first to figure out what was wrong with his sister when she dropped out of university. He was the only one Anna told when she decided to get an abortion. Carson was the only she let talk her out of it. (Which he did with a passion.) When the father wanted nothing to do with the baby, Carson broke the only bone he ever broke intentionally when he punched the guy's nose. He was there at every doctor's appointment for his sister, no matter what his own (admittedly busy) university schedule dictated. He stayed with his sister when Lilly was born, even after Anna broke his knuckle holding his hand so tight.

He totally earned his role as Lily's godfather.

_Fifteen years later - Lilly_

Three days. That's how long I've been alone in the world. I mean, I've been with my grandmother and my aunt Peyton, but it's not the same at all. Not even remotely close. My mother died three days ago.

For as long as I can remember, it's always been just her and me. I've never actually met my father, but my mother told me he was never there. Peyton tried to contact him to tell him that Mom had died, but as far as I know he never responded.

They say that Mom wanted me to live with Carson if anything happened to her. I'm not totally sure how that's going to work, though, because I haven't heard from him in almost three years. I know he took a job at some top-secret research base (and I shouldn't really even know that much,) but that shouldn't stop my godfather, uncle, and best friend from not even sending an email, or even a Christmas card every now and then would be nice. It's almost like he's dropped off the face of the Earth. Yet here I am at Logan Airport with my grandmother, waiting to meet him. I huffed in frustration and boredom, wanting nothing more than to curl back up on my bed and forget the world exists. It makes it hurt less.

Carson came out of the airplane terminal looking tired and very much saddened. They must have told him already. Not caring where he was, he put his bags on the ground in front of him and wrapped me in one of those hugs he'd given me as a little girl when I'd skinned my knee or had been teased at school that day. Everything in me in that moment made me want to forgive him for leaving me alone, for never coming back for me, and for breaking his promise to always be there as I realized how much I truly had missed him. The emotions I'd been bottling up in the past three days as I tried to get over the numb shock that my mother was gone and never coming back suddenly overflowed and I began to cry softly. I knew Carson could tell, because he kissed my hair rubbed my back as I cried.

"I'm so sorry, Lilly," he said, choking on his own tears, "I'm never leaving you again."

I felt myself stiffen at that statement, and I'm sure he felt that too, because he pulled away and put his hands on my shoulders so he could look me dead in the eye.

"I mean it, lass. I'm not going anywhere."

Then I finally believed him. He was home to stay.

**I AM SO SORRY THAT IT'S TAKEN ME SO LONG AND THAT THIS IS SO SHORT. Here ya go, simplemusings. Finally finished. Next chapter'll be longer, I promise, and we'll see Lilly go to Atlantis.**

**Peace and love, my friends!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**What? So soon? Yup. I'm back already, but mainly because I feel bad for simplemusings12, who by the way deserves the BIGGEST shoutout ever for being most dedicated (and I think only) fan, and sort of my personal cheerleader as I've been trying to get this story going. You da best. Really.**

**Anyway, enjoy the second chapter, (which is going to be much longer than the first one was...my bad, sorry.)**

**Thanks to anyone who read my story, and please review if you'd like.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis. Unfortunately.**

_Lilly_

The past few days have been rather hard. Mom's funeral was yesterday, and I ripped the stitches on my eyebrow tripping over my own two feet. Then I find out: Carson can't really stay _here_, but he's going to take me with him to that research facility, if that's alright with me.

What was I supposed to say? Drop your job, your work, your research, your friends, and APPARENTLY your girlfriend (oh, yeah, apparently Carson has a girlfriend) so I can stay here, in a place where I could never move on from losing my mom, where I never really had friends anyway, and a school I don't even like all that much? I couldn't do that to him. Because of that, we left Boston after I had my stitches replaced to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. which I had never heard of.

The security there was tighter than an airport, or any military base I had been to on field trips before. I thought that they checked your ID, walked you through a metal detector, and possibly checked your bag, then you were good. But no, I was practically interrogated, and killed a tree or two with all the paperwork that was involved. Carson stayed with me the whole time, answering questions I couldn't, answering _my _questions, and keeping me sane as I grew increasingly confused and frustrated at the whole process. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they gave me some ridiculous-looking badge with security clearance on it, and the guy told Carson to go ahead and explain everything. Grinning, he led me into a large room with a ramp leading to a gigantic metal hula hoop….thing….with completely weird decorations carved into the sides. It was beautiful, really, but the whole day had been long already, and my mind couldn't even begin to understand what happened.

"What is that?" I finally asked, pointing at the round thing. Carson smiled again before coming to stand beside me.

"That is a Stargate," he said, his face completely calm, "we use it to travel to other planets in the Pegasus galaxy."

Pause. Rewind.

"WHAT!?" I exclaimed, eyes widening at the idea. Then I stopped and thought for a second. "We can do that?"

"Aye. Are you ready? I'll explain everything when we get on the Daedalus." Carson replied, his eyes twinkling in amusement at my surprise.

"Yeah." then I realized what he said, "Wait, what's the Daedalus?"

"Yeah." then I realized what he said, "Wait, what's the Daedalus?"

"It's our - spaceship - we'll be going to Atlantis that way." he looked up at a window above us I hadn't noticed before and nodded to the people in what I assume was a control room. Suddenly, a flash of blue light surrounded me, and then I was in a spaceship, looking at Earth through a window. I got as close to it as I dared, thinking it would break if I leaned to close to the window and be sucked into space. I couldn't even begin to understand what was happening as I stared at my planet. In the blink of an eye, everything I thought I knew possible changed.

Carson was watching me with a cautiously bemused face as I tried to wrap my mind around everything. Surely I was dreaming. Well - this is a pretty bizarre dream, even for me - but there was no way I was in a SPACESHIP, on the way to another PLANET. No way.

"It's real, Lilly," he said quietly, resting a hand shoulder to turn me toward him. "Come on."

He led me through a tangle of hallways and people to what looked like a grown-ups cafeteria, and sat down at a table across from us. We sat there in an awkward silence for a few minutes, neither of us entirely sure what to say to each other.

"Do you still dance?" Carson started. I nodded. It had been his idea for me to dance in the first place. He grinned.

"I went en pointe about 18 months ago. I brought the shoes with me if you want to see sometime." I said. This is something I could talk about with him. Something we still knew and enjoyed talking about. "But mom got me into theater after you left."

He looked a little surprised, but happy to finally see me after almost three years. "Like what?"

"Uhm...I'm currently a big fan of Wicked and Newsies." he nodded. As he began to speak, a concerningly pale faced man with a tablet bustled up to our table, talking about a mile a minute about zed - PMs - and wraith - and replicators - whatever those are. Suddenly, he stopped talking and fixated a quite withering glare at me. I leaned back a little bit, hoping he wouldn't start talking about science-y stuff or whatever he was talking about and expect me to know about whatever it was.

"Carson, what is this?" he said suspiciously.

Carson looked very amused at my predicament. "_This _is my niece, Lilly. Lilly, this is my friend, Rodney McKay." he replied simply.

"Not for nothing, but your poker face hasn't gotten any better, Carson." I said, holding my out to Rodney. "It's nice to meet you." Rodney looked incredibly surprised, and awkwardly accepted my hand and shook it quickly, snatching his hand back immediately as if I were something disgusting or to be afraid of. (I'm hoping it was the latter.) The freakishly pale guy apparently named Rodney left soon after that, babbling about energy and nanites and something like that. Carson shook his head.

"So. Tell me about your _girlfriend_, Carson." I said teasingly, smiling at my uncle mischieviously. To my delight, he blushed. He then told me about how they met, that they worked together, and then how they ended up together in the first place.

"Wait, _Rodney_ kissed you?!" I exclaimed, failing miserably to not laugh at the mental image I had just received.

"Technically, no. Laura kissed me through Rodney." he shot back, though he was laughing at the memory too.

"I bet that was an awkward moment for everybody else in the room," I replied, then thought for a second, "And for Rodney, I bet."

"He couldn't look me in the eye for weeks. Anyway, I bet you want to know why you're in a spaceship and where we're going, don't you?" he said, intentionally changing the subject. I nodded, my eyes widening as I remembered where I was and that I had no clue what was going on around me. I had been so excited to finally see Carson, to talk to my best friend again, to hear his unique Scottish accent that was unlike any I've ever heard. Carson had been so much more than an uncle or godfather to me, and I never really realized how much I'd missed that. I think (I hope, anyway) that he felt the same, because he was staring at me with a look of total awe. Shaking his head at something, he took a deep breath before finally giving me an explanation.

He explained that we were on the Daedalus, a ship that travels faster at the speed of light, and we were headed to the Pegasus galaxy. The lost city of Atlantis is real, and that's where I'd be living now. He also patiently fielded all my ridiculous questions before telling me about the alien Wraith, that Rodney'd been talking about. They are aliens (duh) that look sort of like and humans, and have quite a few human-like tendencies, except this one gaping difference: they suck the life out of you - literally.

Well that's great.

After an hour or two of us talking about just about anything that crossed our minds, Carson led me to the room where I'd sleep while we were on the Daedalus. I got ready for bed while he talked to someone in the hallway, and had crawled into bed. Carson came back into the room and tucked me into to bed like he used to when I was little. I giggled a little bit, and Carson kissed the top of my head.

"Everything's going to be alright, Lilly. Sleep tight."

I nodded and finally fell asleep, content with this new life I was about to lead.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**I'm back and writing with a vengeance! (Lol)**

**Thanks so much AGAIN to simplemusings12 for just being fantabulous as always and reviewing. (Seriously, guys? I know more of you are reading this!) So, I said that last chapter would be when Lilly arrived on Atlantis, but that turned out to be not true. (My bad) I promised simplemusings12 a chapter, and I had to leave, so I didn't exactly have time to write the whole chapter. BUT SHE WILL GO TO ATLANTIS SOON. I've just got some ground to cover beforehand, and it might take a while because I'm about to enter tech (ahem. HELL week) of a show I'm in, and we're reaching the tail-end of the competition season. NOT TO MENTION I'm trying to not fail 8th grade. :/**

**simplemusings12: And being a fan of yours is the least _I_ can do! They're totally losers. (MORE OF YOU SHOULD FOLLOW THIS STORY) You're welcome for the shout out. It's good to hear (even from my fanfiction bestie) that Lilly's reactions seem appropriate. Keep reviewing and being fabulous! (And post that next chapter, dammit! That cliffhanger was harsh!)**

**charmingskyblue304: Thank you so much! It's good to know that people think the POV reads well! Keep on the reviewing! They really brighten my day!**

**Loving-The-Originals: Well that's great to know! Thanks so much for the fabulous review!**

**Vadercat: Thanks so much! I can't wait to see her views on Atlantis either! (LOL I haven't written it yet. :P) Lilly is fifteen, so probably freshman in high school. And as far as together goes...read this chapter. I think she's trying to put up a front while trying to deal with what happened. (Again, read this chapter.)**

*** I would like to point out now that with any ballet references that come, I do actually know what I'm talking about because I am a dancer. If I get something wrong, though, please do tell me! ***

**Anyway. The italicized part is a dream, if that's not clear to everybody when they read it.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned SGA, Carson really would have "been right back" at the end of Sunday. :'(**

"_Lilly! Come on, you're going to be late for school!" Anna called up the stairs. Slowly, her teenage daughter came groggily down the stairs, her camoflaugue-ish backpack slung over her shoulder. Rolling her eyes, Lilly grabbed an apple and started out to the car, her mother closely behind her. Shutting the door, they drove out into the busy Quincy, Massachusetts streets. _

"_I've got rehearsal tonight for Romeo and Juliet. Apparently, Madame thinks we need to go over the balcony scene's lifts forty two thousand more times," Lilly said as she double checked her bag for all of her homework. _

"_Okay...I got an email from Peyton. They're going to fly over to see it." her mother said, smiling at her daughter. She had been cast in Boston Ballet School's production of Romeo and Juliet as Juliet - her first leading ballet role. _

"_Is Carson coming?" Lilly asked hopefully, though she thought she already knew the answer. Anna shook her head._

"_I don't know, hon. We'll see. I know he's proud of you, though." she answered reassuringly. Lilly rolled her eyes. She'd heard that one before. "Hey, you know he is. Besides, I'm so proud of you, Lils." her mother added encouragingly. Lilly shook her head angrily and stared out the window, not saying another word. Her dirty blonde hair fell in loose waves past her shoulders, hiding her face from her mother, who all but turned herself sideways to look at her daughter._

"_I know you are. I just wish he could be here, even for a day." Lilly finally whispered. Anna couldn't see it, but there were disappointed tears in her eyes. Carson had been the one who got her into dancing, and there was nothing she wanted more than for him to be there the night she danced her first lead role._

_Both were so wrapped in their thoughts they never saw the car run that red light and speed towards them. The impact hit Lilly's side head-on with a sickening crunch. She was thrown sideways, and glass went flying everywhere. The car flipped sideways before either could register what was happening. Screaming, Lilly felt very dizzy, and for a moment, everything went black._

_When Lilly woke up, she could feel something warm and sticky sliding down her face. Grossed out, she reached up, and her hand came away slick with blood. Well that's fabulous. Turning her face sideways, all she could see is the sky out her window. That was weird. Furrowing her eyebrow, she turned her head towards her mother to ask what the hell was happening, and she nearly fainted at the sight. Her mother was leaning heavily against the driver's side window, her light brown hair matted with blood. Blood. Lilly officially hated that word. All she could see was blood on her mother, on her own clothes, and staining the side of the seat._

"_Mom?" Lilly whispered, reaching her arm out to shake the side of her mother's arm. Anna's body flopped limply against the window. "Mom!" Lilly cried again._

"Mom!" Lilly sat up quickly in bed, choking back a scream bubbling in her throat. She hoped that nobody had heard her, because Carson would be there in the next ten seconds. Apparently, Lilly's hopes were fruitless, because the door to her room on the Daedalus opened, and a concerned-looking Carson entered, tired but alert at the sound of his niece's nightmare. Hesitating for only a moment, he sat down on the side of her bed and held her close as she cried.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked quietly after a moment. Lilly shook her head and whimpered, frustrated that she couldn't control herself. Taking a deep breath, she nodded against his shoulder. Carson pulled back enough to see her tear-streaked face as she tried to control her breathing enough to say something intelligible.

"I miss Mom," she whispered, leaning back into his shoulder as she tried to swallow another sob. Carson caught her easily and sighed, tears filling his own eyes as he rubbed small circles in her back, trying to calm her.

"I miss her too," he whispered.

"It's all my fault!" Lilly cried after a time of sitting in silence. Carson blinked in disbelief and held her closer.

"No, it's not, Lilly," he said quietly, "It's not your fault."

"Yes, it is!" she cried exasperatedly. "If I hadn't slept in that morning - if I hadn't missed the bus - Mom wouldn't've been driving me to school - and none of this would've happened!"

"Lilly," Carson shook his head, tilting her chin up so he could look her in the eyes. Lilly tried to pull away, but Carson put his hands on her shoulders, keeping her in front of him. She still tried to look away, obviously not wanting to hear what he had to say. "Lilly Alexis Beckett, look at me." Lilly shook her head, but looked up anyway, familiar with that tone of voice. He was trying to tell her something important.

"Lilly, your mother loved you very much. Now tell me, do you think she'd be happy to see you blaming yourself like this?" Lilly shook her head. "It's not your fault, Lilly-flower. None of this is your fault, alright?" Hesitating, she nodded and fell back into Carson's arms.

"It just hurts so much." she whispered, half-asleep.

"I know, lass, I know." he whispered back, kissing her dirty blonde hair.

They fell asleep there that night.

_Three Days Later_

"Lilly, you're going to want to see this," Rodney said to the bored teenager. She didn't know exactly what she had expected it to be like on a spaceship for two weeks, but she guessed she thought it would be-well, more exciting than doing basically nothing. Her eyebrows furrowed in curiosity, coming to stand in front of the gigantic window on the Daedalus. She didn't see anything noticeably different. (Well, other than she could see outerspace, and not those blue flashing-light-things from travelling faster than the speed of light.)

"What exactly am I supposed to be seeing, Rodney?" she asked impertinently, slightly annoyed.

"Your new home will be in view in about two minutes." he answered, as if this was the most obvious thing on the planet. (err-universe?)

True to his word, Lilly could see the outlines of a city within the next two minutes, and as they flew closer, she could very easily see what could only be described as beautiful. Atlantis was easily one of the most beautiful cities she had ever seen, pristine and neat and the most chrome-looking blue she had ever seen. Neat and tidy from way up high.

"Wow." she breathed. Carson found her a few minutes later, and told her that they were going down to the city. Tearing her eyes away from the beautiful sight, she followed Carson to the elevator-looking-thing Rodney had told her was a transporter, (_And don't touch anything. I don't want some kid screwing it up!_ he had said,) and watched as the flash of blue light came in front of her eyes again. Suddenly, she was in the middle of a great transporter-like room, with another Stargate right behind her. Her eyes were wide with amazement, and Carson grinned at his niece.

"Welcome home, Lilly."


End file.
